"Increase Our Faith"

 

Luke 17:5-10

 

       There are times in our lives when we call on God to increase our faith.  After many years of good health we discover we have a serious illness.  The nominating committee of the church calls us to take a position we are not sure we can handle.  We are going on a mission trip for the first time and we do not know what to expect and how we will handle it.  Our friends ask us to do something we know we should not do but we are not sure that we are strong enough to say no.  We feel very strongly that whatever it is, we cannot do it on our own.  We call upon God to increase our faith, to help us through this situation.

 

        That is precisely what the disciples asked Jesus to do after one of his teaching sessions.  He told them it would be better for one of them to have a millstone hung around his neck and be cast into the sea than he should cause one of these little ones to sin.  And if your brother sins against you seven times in one day and turns to you seven times and says "I repent" you must forgive him.

       

        They were overwhelmed by the words of Jesus.  If we are going to do that you are going to have to increase our faith.  And Jesus responded, you don't understand the power of faith.  "If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be rooted up and planted into the sea, and it would obey you." 

 

        Personally I question this teaching.  My next door neighbor has several pine trees right on the property line that drop pine needles onto our roof and into our gutters.  Whenever I have to clean the gutters out, which is about four times a year, I say to the pine trees "Be rooted up and planted down in the back of the yard," but so far it hasn't happened. 

 

         It is not the quantity of faith that is important.  A tiny seed is enough if it is real faith. But it is not about moving trees.  It is about saying and doing things that transform  peoples lives.  It is about not causing any of God's children to stumble, it is about forgiveness.  Real faith enables God to work through us in ways that defy human experience. 

 

       It is faith that enables us to reach out to new converts, that enables us to forgive our brother, that helps us deal with adversity, to fulfill a leadership position in the church, to reach out in mission in the name of Jesus, to say "No" to our friends when we know what they are asking us to do is wrong.  Jesus is saying that there is a correlation between faith and conduct.  The thrust of Christian conduct is away from self to a profound concern for others. 

 

       Jesus concludes this passage with a very tough teaching.  He compares the follower of Jesus to a slave.  The slave does what he or she is commanded by the master.  They don't do it to be praised. They do it because it is their duty.  In other words, in the Christian faith there is no such thing as going above and beyond the call of duty.  Whatever we do, it is a part of our call, our mission as people of God.    

        

      About thirty-five years ago there was a young man in Rockbridge Baths, Virginia who had a dream.  He dreamed of racing cars. His teachers said that when he was sitting at his desk in school they would see him pressing the gas pedal and the clutch with his feet.  He sold a cow to buy his first race car.  He began racing at short tracks around his home and eventually built his own Grand National Team.  Eighteen years later, in his first trip to the Daytona International Speedway half way through the race he was leading the Daytona 500.  After that race he was signed to large contract to drive for a Winston Cup team.  He had a dream and he worked to make that dream a reality.

 

        People who are running and walking for the Susan B.Komen Cure this afternoon have faith that what they are doing will help bring about a cure for cancer.  As Christians our faith allows us to envision new realities for our families, our church, the world.  Even if it is as tiny as the smallest seed, it will enable God to work in us and through us to change lives in wonderful and amazing ways.

 

        Today God is feeding Christians throughout the world.  God is calling us to go out into the world with real faith, a faith that believes that God's Holy Spirit is working through us to transform lives.